| Dear Insiders, Happy Friday! Here are today's top AI stories: - European companies criticize the EU's upcoming AI regulations.
- AI startup Humane unveils AI wearable assistant device.
- AI tool analyzes speech to detect signs of dementia and Alzheimer's.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | More than 150 executives from major European companies, including Renault, Heineken, Airbus, and Siemens, have signed an open letter arguing that the EU's proposed AU Act would harm Europe's competitiveness and technological sovereignty. The executives argue that the rules are too extreme and could impede rather than foster AI innovation. More: - The signatories argue that the regulations heavily restrict technologies, in particular generative AI, which could lead to high compliance costs and liability risks for companies.
- They warned that companies might relocate, and investors might withdraw capital from European AI development.
- They've called for policymakers to revise the bill, emphasizing the need for a risk-based approach and broad principles.
- The companies urged the EU to establish an expert regulatory body to oversee the law's rollout.
- OpenAI previously lobbied against proposed rules in the AI Act and had threatened to leave the European market but later clarified it has no plans to do so.
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| 2 | | What happened: Humane, the startup founded by ex-Apple designers Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, unveiled its first product, the Humane Ai Pin. Details: The AI-powered wearable device can be pinned to clothing and acts as a personal assistant, answering spoken questions and projecting information onto the user's hands or nearby objects and surfaces. It can summarize emails and calendar invites, translate languages, make phone calls, and recognize objects using computer vision. Humane has also partnered with Qualcomm to use an unnamed Snapdragon series chip as the internal hardware for the Ai Pin device. By the numbers: Humane has now raised at least $230M, including a $100M round announced in March, from investors including Kindred Ventures, Microsoft, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Volvo Cars Tech Fund. The company should capitalize on the fast-growing global wearable tech market, which is projected to surpass $392.4B by 2030. 
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| 3 | | Researchers at the University of Sheffield have developed an AI tool called CognoSpeak that analyzes speech and language patterns to detect signs of dementia and Alzheimer's. CognoSpeak uses a virtual agent shown on a web browser to engage patients, asking memory-related questions and conducting cognitive tests. More: - The system analyzes language and speech patterns using AI technology.
- The tool aims to facilitate faster diagnoses of memory disorders by acting as a middleman between doctors and dementia specialists.
- Early trials have shown promising results, with CognoSpeak demonstrating 90% accuracy in distinguishing individuals with Alzheimer's from cognitively healthy individuals, which is similar to traditional "pen-and-paper tests."
- The system, currently in the research phase, is being trialed with the support of a £1.4M ($1.78M) grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), involving the recruitment of 700 participants from memory clinics across the U.K.
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| 4 | | OpenAI said it has chosen London for its first corporate office outside the U.S. The San Francisco-based company could benefit from London's strong AI research hub, data science and AI talent pool, and ecosystem of AI startups. More: - CEO Sam Altman had previously expressed the company's intention to establish a European office, with potential contenders including Poland, France, and the U.K.
- The decision follows Altman's criticism of the European Union's proposed AI regulations, which require generative AI companies to disclose their training data.
- In contrast, the U.K. said it's developing "pro-innovation" regulations.
- The country's government says it has invested £2.5B ($3.16B) in AI since 2014.
Zoom out: - London is also home to DeepMind, Google's AI research lab and one of OpenAI's primary competitors.
- The city is also gearing up to host an AI Summit in 2024.
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| 5 | | Starting this fall, Harvard University's intro-level coding course will incorporate an AI tool to support student learning. The "CS50 bot" AI program will help students find code bugs, explain error messages, and answer questions. More: - The bot, similar to ChatGPT, will use AI models to guide students toward answers in the school's Introduction to Computer Science course.
- The goal is to streamline tasks for course staff and free up time for student interactions.
- The AI tool will be available 24/7 and aims to approximate a 1:1 teacher-student ratio.
- While the first interaction of the tool will likely have limitations, the university believes that feedback from students and teachers can help improve it.
- CS50 is one of the most popular classes on edX, the online learning platform co-founded by MIT and Harvard.
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| 6 | | Weekly roundup — Other top AI stories you might have missed this week: - Data and AI firm Databricks is acquiring generative AI startup MosaicML in a deal worth $1.3B. Databricks and MosaicML are partnering to enable businesses to create their own language models using proprietary data rather than relying on third-party models.
- Clarkson, a California law firm, has filed a class-action lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the company of infringing upon copyrights and violating privacy by using scraped data from the web to train ChatGPT. The lawsuit tests the theory that OpenAI violated the rights of millions of internet users by using their content without permission.
- Inflection, the startup known for its Pi chatbot, has raised $1.3B. The significant funding round, led by Microsoft, Bill Gates, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and new investor Nvidia, values the startup at $4B.
- Google DeepMind, its AI research lab, is developing a new chatbot called Gemini that could rival or surpass OpenAI's ChatGPT, according to CEO Demis Hassabis. Gemini, built on the capabilities of DeepMind's AlphaGo AI system, could analyze text, plan, and solve problems.
- FTX has halted the sale of its stake in AI startup Anthropic, one of its most desirable assets. At the time of its bankruptcy filing in November, FTX held $500M worth of Anthropic stock.
- Runway, known for its AI software that creates short videos from text prompts, nabbed $141M in a Series C extension round from investors including Google, Nvidia, and Salesforce Ventures. Runway's Gen-2 tool, which generates videos from text, has gained popularity among a diverse user base, from movie directors to small creators.
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- U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) has urged major tech companies to label AI-generated content and monitor for potentially misleading information produced by AI.
- GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke, speaking at the 2023 Collision Conference in Toronto, said AI adoption could contribute over $1T to the global GDP in the next seven years.
- South Korean mobile carrier SK Telecom has upgraded its chatbot with technology powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT.
- GeologicAI, a Canadian company specializing in AI-powered geological exploration and resource digitization services, has successfully raised $20M in Series A funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. She has written the Inside AI newsletter since 2019. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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